Importance of Civil Forfeiture as a Law Enforcement Tool

Stef Cassella gave a presentation on the importance of civil forfeiture as a law enforcement tool at the Convention of South American Public Prosecutors and Attorneys General in Lima, Peru on October 3, 2017. The presentation describes civil forfeiture procedure in the United States, lists the ten most-often cited reasons why civil forfeiture is chosen over criminal forfeiture by a federal prosecutor, and givens examples of recent high-profile cases in which civil forfeiture was the vehicle for the recovery of property, including the Prevezon/Magitsky case in New York, the MegaUpload case in Virginia, the Abacha case from Nigeria that led to the recovery of property in Jersey, and the North Korea sanctions case filed in Washington, DC.